It was one of the first single-seaters to be used as a fighter aircraft, although it was not possible to fit it with an effective forward-firing armament until the first British-designed gun synchronizers became available later in 1916, by which time the Scout was obsolescent.

Carbery fitted it with an 80 hp Le Rhône 9C nine-cylinder rotary and entered it in the London–Manchester race held on 20 June but damaged the aircraft when landing at Castle Bromwich and had to withdraw.

After repairs, including a modification of the undercarriage to widen the track, Carbury entered it in the London–Paris–London race held on 11 July but had to ditch the aircraft in the English Channel on the return leg; while in France, only one of the two fuel tanks had been filled by mistake.

[9] The production aircraft, later called the Scout C, differed from their predecessors mainly in constructional detail, although the cowling was replaced by one with a small frontal opening and no stiffening ribs, the top decking in front of the cockpit had a deeper curve and the aluminium covering of the fuselage sides extended only as far as the forward centre-section struts, aft of which the decking was plywood.

These began with the arming of the second Scout B, RFC number 648, with two rifles, one each side, aimed outwards and forwards to clear the propeller arc.

[1][10] Two of the Royal Flying Corps' early Bristol Scout C aircraft, numbers 1609 and 1611, flown by Captain Lanoe Hawker with No.

When Hawker downed two German aircraft and forced off a third on 25 July 1915 over Passchendaele and Zillebeke he was awarded the first-ever Victoria Cross for the actions of a British single-seat military scout/fighter pilot in aerial combat against an enemy's heavier-than-air aircraft,[11] following the earlier VC awards to William Rhodes-Moorhouse (flying a B.E.2 two-seat observation biplane) and Reginald Warneford (flying against an enemy Zeppelin) in April[12] and June 1915[13][14] respectively.

5303 but since this seemed to have also required the use of the Morane Type N's immense "casserole" spinner, which almost totally blocked cooling air from reaching the engine, the deflecting-wedge method was not pursued further with Bristol Scouts.

Once the Bristol Scouts were no longer required for frontline service they were reallocated to training units, although many were retained by senior officers as personal "runabouts".

[1][20] Following the initial run of 36 Scout C airframes, later Scout C production batches, consisting of 50 aircraft built for the RNAS and 75 for the RFC, changed the cowl to a flat-fronted shorter-depth version able to house either the Gnome Lambda rotary, or the alternate choice of a nine-cylinder 80 hp Le Rhône 9C rotary engine when the Gnome Lambda was not used, and moved the oil tank forward to a position in front of the pilot for better weight distribution and more reliable engine operation.

One of the earliest changes appeared on seventeen of the 75 naval Scout Cs with an increase in the wing dihedral angle from 1+3⁄4° to 3° and other aircraft in the 75 aircraft naval production run introduced a larger-span set of horizontal tail surfaces and a broadened-chord rudder, shorter-span ailerons and a large front opening for the cowl, much like that of Scout B but made without the external stiffening ribs instead.

[22] The newer cowl was sometimes modified with a blister on the starboard lower side for more efficient exhaust-gas scavenging, as it was meant to house the eventual choice of the more powerful, nine-cylinder 100 hp Gnôme Monosoupape B2 rotary engine in later production batches, to improve the Scout D's performance.

Two notable reproductions and a single replica of the Bristol Scout have been built for flight – Leo Opdycke, the founder of the World War I AERO quarterly publication, started building a reproduction Scout D in 1962 in New York State,[24] meant to be powered with a Le Rhône 9C 80 hp rotary engine.

The aircraft slowly took form at his home, then in Poughkeepsie, New York, through the early 1980s, when it was completed, then brought to the nearby Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome and flown once there successfully, ending in a slight mishap without injury.

The uncovered complete airframe, with engine, is today on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, UK.

1264, one of the first 24 Scout Cs built for the RNAS, but using the preserved joystick, rudder bar and still-functional Bosch starting magneto from the original No.

[26] A Bristol Scout D replica flys with the NZ Warbirds Association based at Ardmore Airport, Auckland, New Zealand.